Starting a new game, need help with party and PC

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Whew, this game sure collected a lot of dust in the last few years. Anyway, i'm getting bored with NWN series so i've decided to give this one another go (i have also installed Baldurdash's Dialogue fixes and Bug Fixpack).

Unfortunately i didn't keep any notes from previous playthroughs, so there are things i'm not too sure about. It's a pretty huge game so i don't want to waste time restarting it over and over.

FIrst of all, i'll take sorcerer as my PC, but i'm not sure what race to choose. Human or Elf are both interesting, but are there any important differences between them except the obvious? The stats: i think i'll take minimal strength and dump as much as possible into other stats except charisma. Also if anyone has a good spell list for a party based sorcerer i'd really like to see it.

Now for the party, i think i'll take:

PC (Sorcerer)

Korgan
Keldorn
Edwin

These are pretty much set in stone, i believe they are among the better NPC's to take.

Jaheira/Viconia/Anomen

I'm not too sure about this slot, initially the idea was to go for Viconia, for her drowish abilities, but on the other hand, i don't remember how much use there is for a full time cleric. I think the second option would be jaheira, although she's rather weak from what i recall.

Yoshimo/Imoen/Mazzy/Minsc

I'll probably be using this slot for rotation, but ultimately i'll take imoen.

However this means my party will have 2 fighters, 2.5 arcane casters, 1 cleric and 0.5 of a thief. So basically, not much front line and a lot of support. I could take another character like Mazzy or Minsc to take up this slot for another tank, but then i lose the only party's thief.

It also means i won't be able to use most of the stuff i find, and i'll need to find enough scrolls to fill 2 arcane spell books.

Any thoughts appreciated.

 

Regarding spells, a good place to start would be to check out the Spell Level Discussion threads over at in the SoA Forum.

Well, first of all you'll have to watch your rep with that party. And there's the possibility of clashes between some (I can't remember which of the NPCs that are "incompatible" with each other).

If you go for Jaheira for the 5th character slot you won't miss a frontliner. She can tank with the best of them, being able to wield sword, shield and a full plate. Add Iron Skins on top of that and she'll be the one capable of soaking the most melee damage of the lot. Anomen is a decent tank as well, and in an un-modded game you won't need a pure cleric anyway (IMHO you never really *need* a pure cleric, just a cleric or druid in some form - though the druid will miss out of some of the sweeter cleric spells like greater command, negative plane protection, etc.).

As for the last spot I'd take Yoshimo. He's an excellent thief, traps are deadly in an un-modded game and the change to Imoen will come naturally .

 

whoops, i totally forgot about this. how does this reputation thing works with evil people?

i think keldorn and viconia are incompatible, but i can always kick keldorn out if he gets violent (and make him rejoin after)
if i take jaheira, i have no incompatibility, that i'm aware of.. hmm

 

Edwin will go nuts at Keldorn on rare occasions; made rare by a distance requirement. Just keep them physically apart, and they should be fine.

 

IIRC if your reputation goes heroic (18+) Evil allies will leave, and below 10 or so good ones will leave.

 

I recommend installing a "happy party" mod. It's not that fun searching for some innocent to kill or do other stupid rep-decreasing things in order to keep the evil members in the party.

 

Not quite. Below 10 or so they start complaining, but it's only at 3 that they'll leave, barring the goody two-shoes Keldorn and Mazzy.

 

hmm.. what are some reliable ways to lose reputation?

 

Kill a beggar in a secluded place or steal from a shop that isn't required for any quests or decent items, then have fun taking out the guards. But yeah, they're aren't too many quest routes that result in rep. loss. One that comes to mind is poisoning the druid grove, but that tends to be less profitable than the other methods. There's a machine that will do it in a Tevern in the underdark, and
*spoiler*

changing to the slayer will result in a loss of 2 reputation points.

 

Viconia drops you rep by 2, whilst she is in your party.

yeh, cant think of too many quests that drop your reputation, some have a good reward which raises it, and an evil result which more often than not, leave your rep where it is.

 

IIRC there's an evil alternative to poison the Druid Groove in Trademeet that'll drop your rep. Might have been a mod though, now I think of it .